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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to vehicle wheel ornamentation. More specifically, this invention relates to a wheel cover assembly having interchangeable inserts snapped into turbine pockets of a wheel cover, so as to provide a variety of decorative contrasts between the turbine pockets and the rest of the vehicle wheel cover.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art includes various decorative wheel cover assemblies that are important to the side profile appearance of an automobile. Because wheels represent such a large portion of the surface area of the side profile of a vehicle, it is increasingly desirable to provide vehicle purchasers with a variety of interchangeable decorative appearances for vehicle wheels. On some vehicles, the wheel surface area can constitute over 20% of the overall side profile surface area, thus underscoring the need for a variety of wheel decorating options.
One approach to incorporating decorative wheel cover assemblies that are pertinent to the present invention involves using centrally mounted inserts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,957 to Lyon teaches the use of a snap-on reflector insert that is interlocked within a central aperture of a wheel cover. The wheel cover includes the central aperture that is defined by an annular edge and a plurality of U-shaped spring fingers extending laterally behind the annular edge and terminating in free ends. The snap-on reflector insert is snapped past the spring fingers such that a first shoulder mounts flush with the annular edge of the wheel cover, and a second shoulder mounts against and is gripped by the free ends of the spring fingers. Accordingly, the spring fingers exert a resilient force on the snap-on reflector insert to urge it against the annular edge.
A similar wheel cover disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,994,979 to Shoemaker teaches a central medallion that is glued to a wheel cover for ornamentation purposes. The wheel cover includes a depressed central cover area that is defined by a depressed annular channel therearound. Glue is applied to the depressed central cover area and the central medallion is then assembled to the depressed central cover area over the glue, such that excess glue is able to ooze into the depressed annular channel.
Another version of a wheel cover having a centrally mounted insert is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,295 to Beisch that teaches use of a decorative plastic insert that is mounted to a metal wheel cover in a way intended to overcome the disadvantages associated with the Lyon and Shoemaker references. Beisch discloses that the wheel cover has a central seat portion of convex shape that has an annular folded flange around the periphery of the central seat portion. The flange extends radially inwardly and is spaced from the outboard surface of the central seat portion to define an annular groove therebetween. A decorative insert is formed with an outside diameter greater than the inside diameter of the flange but less than the inside diameter of the annular groove. The decorative insert is assembled to the wheel cover by a vacuum tool that deforms the decorative insert. The tool engages the decorative insert so as to temporarily decrease the outside diameter of the decorative insert an amount sufficient to permit it to fit inside of the flange. Thereupon, the tool disengages the decorative insert to restore the outside diameter permitting it to extend into the annular groove, such that it is trapped between the flange and the outboard surface of the central seat portion of the wheel cover. A ring gasket is disposed between the decorative insert and wheel cover to provide a seal therebetween.
Finally, a somewhat related version of a wheel cover having a centrally mounted insert is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,525 to Denton that teaches use of a hubcap for covering a heavy-duty vehicle wheel and for permitting examination of the oil level through the hubcap. Denton discloses that the hubcap is composed of plastic and has a mounting flange portion mounted to the wheel, an end wall portion opposite the wheel, and a conical sidewall portion therebetween. The end wall portion includes an opening therethrough, to which a transparent window insert is molded in-situ using an insert molding method. The transparent window insert includes a center opening therethrough, into which a removable center plug is inserted.
Unfortunately, the above-mentioned Lyon, Shoemaker, Beisch, and Denton references do not disclose structure that is compatible with snap-in inserts for vent openings of a vehicle wheel. Instead, Lyon, Shoemaker, Beisch, and Denton all teach use of a centrally mounted insert to fit within a central aperture or depression of a wheel cover, wherein the insert is interlocked within the central aperture using annular interlocking features, expensive adhesive, or in-situ molding.
A second approach involving decorative wheel cover assemblies involves application of an outboard ornamental skin to an underlying rigid wheel cover. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,685 to Spisak teaches a wheel trim assembly having a plastic cover with selected portions thereof covered by a thin metal cover so that portions of the wheel trim assembly have a metallic finish and remaining portions have a nonmetallic finish. Spisak addresses the problems associated with providing such finishes on a unitary wheel cover, including masking and painting the wheel cover. Conventional paint masking and resist-paint masking techniques are known to be relatively expensive and difficult to execute on a mass production basis. Accordingly, Spisak discloses a plastic body member that is adapted to cover an outboard face of a wheel. A metal member overlies only certain portions of the plastic body member so as to provide a metallic finish in those portions, and other portions of the plastic body member are left exposed in contrast to the metallic finish for decorative purposes. Specifically, Spisak discloses that the plastic cover has outward primary surfaces and deep recesses defining inward secondary surfaces. The metal cover has an outer surface corresponding to the outward primary surfaces of the plastic cover, and further has vent openings corresponding to the inward secondary surfaces of the plastic cover. The metal cover is sandwiched between the plastic cover and a hubcap that fastens through the metal cover to the plastic cover. Therefore, the wheel trim assembly leaves the secondary surfaces of the plastic cover exposed for contrast with the exposed outer surface of the metal cover.
A remarkably similar configuration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,225 to Ferriss et al. that teaches a composite applique construction to simulate styling features of aluminum alloy wheels. Ferriss et al. disclose an applique assembly composed of an insert member and an ornamental applique mounted to a vehicle wheel having a spider with alternating spokes and openings therethrough, a rim, and a rim flange. The insert member includes an annular outer insert portion mounted adjacent the rim of the vehicle wheel, and further includes an annular inner insert portion and vent openings therethrough that align between the spokes of the vehicle wheel. A resilient filler is disposed between the spider of the vehicle wheel and the insert member, and an adhesive is disposed between the insert member and the applique. Additionally, the periphery of the applique is interlocked to the rim flange of the vehicle wheel to assist in retaining the applique assembly to the vehicle wheel.
Unfortunately, both the Spisak and Ferriss et al. references involve mounting a large metal appliquxc3xa9, or skin, on top of an underlying plastic body member to achieve an aesthetic contrast between the appearance of wheel vent openings and the appearance of the outer surface of the wheel cover assembly. This unnecessarily demands manufacture of both plastic and sheet metal wheel components, and therefore complicates manufacturing of the wheel cover assembly.
A final approach to such wheel cover assemblies is disclosed in U.S. Pat. 4,441,762 to Segal that recognizes that ornamental wheel designs of the prior art were not variable or alterable. Therefore, Segal teaches a decorative wheel covering for providing a multiplicity of arbitrarily devised ornamental patterns according to the desire of the user. Segal discloses a wheel cover having a rim for attaching to a wheel, and further discloses a plurality of pie-shaped decorative segments having radially outer portions that attach to the rim of the wheel. The decorative segments are reversible and may include a variety of colors and designs. A two-piece hub sandwiches central portions of the decorative segments to complete the assembly of the wheel cover. Accordingly, different decorative patterns can be created by the user by arbitrarily varying the decorative segments. Unfortunately, the Segal design involves use of no less than eight separate components, including three separate fastening components.
From the above, it can be appreciated that the decorative wheel cover assemblies of the prior art are not fully optimized and include a variety of disadvantages. Therefore, what is needed is a wheel cover that provides unlimited turbine pocket decorating schemes, and includes a separate insert that integrally fastens to a vehicle wheel within a vent opening thereof, and thereby avoids the problems associated with paint masking techniques and the problems associated with the prior art references discussed above.
According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a wheel cover assembly having a wheel cover with turbine pockets disposed in an array about the wheel cover. An insert or pocket insert is disposed in each of the turbine pockets, wherein the surface treatments of the wheel cover and pocket inserts can be varied to provide a contrasting decorative appearance across the wheel cover assembly. The pocket inserts are fastened to the wheel cover using an integral snap tab arrangement including integral snap tabs that extend in an inboard direction from the inboard surface of the wheel cover and that are disposed around each turbine pocket. Moreover, integral stirrups correspond to the integral snap tabs and extend in an inboard direction from an inboard surface of the pocket insert, and thereby interlock with the integral snap tabs of the wheel cover to retain the pocket inserts within the turbine pockets of the wheel cover. Therefore, the present invention sets forth unique structure for integrally fastening a novel turbine pocket insert into a turbine pocket of a wheel cover to provide an unlimited number of decorating themes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wheel cover assembly that includes a quick and simple way to provide a variety of decorating schemes for a wheel, wherein it is possible to minimize tooling costs by using common tooling to manufacture a common wheel cover that can be used with a multitude of differently styled turbine inserts.
It is another object to provide a wheel cover assembly that has one basic design configuration for the wheel cover that can be quickly and easily adapted to a multitude of other design configurations simply by interchanging the pocket inserts.
It is a still another object to provide a wheel cover assembly having one wheel cover that has a certain surface treatment, and a variety of selectable pocket inserts that have a different surface treatment to provide a decorative contrast on the outboard surface of the wheel cover assembly.
It is yet another object to provide a unique integral fastening arrangement to fasten a pocket insert within a turbine pocket of a wheel cover.
These objects and other features, aspects, and advantages of this invention will be more apparent after a reading of the following detailed description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings.